Jacksonville Area Excels in Adoption from the Foster Care System
The Florida Department of Children and Families services had set a goal to reduce the number of children in foster care by 50 percent by 2012. Northeast Florida, largely because of the success in the Jacksonville area, has made a monumental achievement in this endeavor to adopt children in the foster care system. As a result Florida has outpaced all other states at finding safe and permanent homes for children in the foster care system.
Governor Charlie Crist, Lt. Governor Jeff Kottkamp 
and the Governor’s Chief Child Advocate Jim Kallinger have led “The Explore Adoption” public awareness campaign accentuating the importance of finding “forever families” for foster children. The intent is to reduce the children in foster care so that fewer children have to spend a great length of time enduring the emotional trauma and instability related to that lifestyle.
Leading the nation in the development of The Heart Galleries, Florida has had unprecedented success in finding loving homes for children in foster care. The Heart Galleries portray adoptive children in a way that descriptions never could through photographs of the children. Volunteer professional photographers take portraits of the children for recruitment purposes in aiding the Heart Galleries to provide public awareness of the need in finding adoptive families and permanent, loving homes for individual children.
Teenagers are one of the most difficult groups to find adoptive homes for. In an effort to encourage the adoption of teenagers, The Florida Department of Children and Families created the “Longest Waiting Teens” initiative. This project helps organizations direct their attention to finding adoptive homes for youth who have been in foster care the longest. Many of the teens have currently been in foster care for more than five years. The Florida Department of Children and Families has received federal funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as an adoption incentive reward.
As a result of these programs in Florida, ten thousand few children are in foster care today than there were three years ago. By outpacing any other state, Florida has received nearly $10 million in bonus funds from the federal government for this worthy cause.
Visit Florida Department of Children & Families here
Visit The Heart Gallery here
Visit Explore Adoption here
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